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Notebook: Jaylen Brown, Mike Edwards visit Michigan

As expected, five-star wing Jaylen Brown made his official visit to Ann Arbor last week. Brown arrived on campus on Wednesday afternoon for his fifth and final official visit.

Brown has also taken official visits to Kentucky, Kansas and UCLA and North Carolina. Georgia and Georgia Tech also remain in the equation as the home state schools.

Michigan hasn’t been recruiting Brown as long as others, but had its full opportunity to make a pitch to Brown, who was originally attracted to Michigan due to a number of family connections to the state and the school.

Brown followed the trip to Michigan up with an unofficial visit to Cal, a school that many didn’t even realize was still recruiting Brown. Scout.com reports that Brown was on campus at Cal on Sunday and Monday.

Brown has a busy schedule coming up. He’ll play in the McDonald’s All-American Game (Chicago) on April 1st, the Nike Hoop Summit (Portland) on April 11th and the Jordan Brand Classic (Brooklyn) on April 17th. His Wheeler High School team will play in the Dick’s Sporting Goods National Championship next week, opening with a quarterfinal game against Huntington Prep on April 2nd.

The late signing period for college basketball begins on April 15th. Brown previously wrote in his blog that he hoped to announce his decision on April 1st at the McDonald’s All-American game.

In-state big man Mike Edwards visits

Michigan also hosted Westland John Glenn big man Mike Edwards over the weekend. Edwards is a 6-foot-10, 220 pound big man that had a breakout senior season. He averaged just 4 points per game as a junior before averaging 22 points and 12 rebounds per game as a senior.

“He only had one offer, from Akron, heading into his senior year, then received another one from Detroit in September,” John Glenn coach Rod Watts told the Detroit News. “We put in a lot of time with Mike and he’s worked hard and learned to love the game instead of just like it. He found out it’s a vehicle to get him to the next level and maybe one day get paid for playing.”

Michigan has recently watched Edwards (including earlier this month) and he’s added numerous offers this season with a list that includes Georgia, Kansas State, Nebraska, Boston College, Illinois State, Eastern Michigan, Detroit, Cleveland State and Loyola.

Jon Teske leads Medina to strong finish

Class of 2016 Michigan commit Jon Teske helped Medina to the regional finals where the Bees lost to Shaker Heights. Teske had 12 points, seven blocks and three rebounds in the loss in front of John Beilein.

While the 7-footer started the season slowly, averaging 8 points per game through the first six games of the year, he emerged down the stretch. He averaged 16 points, nine rebounds and seven blocks per game in the postseason.

“We talk about this as a coaching staff all the time,” Hassinger said. “After he works out this off-season with the guys we have lined up to work out with him and putting in a great summer of lifting, we think he’s got a chance to be one of the best players, if not the best player, in the state of Ohio next year.”

Seth Towns helps Northland to quarterfinal finish

John Beilein was in to watch Seth Towns on Wednesday night and the 6-foot-8 forward was limited just 7 points on 2 of 9 shooting in the win, he did grab 13 rebounds and block two shots.

“Teams have been playing a lot of box-and-one defenses on me, and we’ve really adjusted to that,” said Towns, a heavily recruited 6-foot-7 junior forward who played before an interested onlooker in Michigan coach John Beilein. “My teammates are eating for me. They’re getting the job done for me. We’ve got a really underrated team.”

That victory helped Northland to a regional finals appearance, where the Vikings lost to Westerville South. Towns had 20 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks in the loss.

It was a breakout season for Towns, who averaged 23 points per game.

Other notes

German big man Moritz Wagner continued his strong play with ALBA Berlin’s NBBL youth squad, scoring 20 points, grabbing seven rebounds and handing out three assists in a series clinching win over Bonn in the first round of the NBBL playoffs.

Michigan is one of the five schools pursuing Quintin Goodin the hardest.

I’ve seen a lot of questions about this. We’ve tried to get in touch, but Jaylen doesn’t talk much and at this point in the game as the top uncommitted prospect around he doesn’t have to.

It’s not easy to fly across the country on an unofficial visit without anyone finding out. Especially when you are that highly regarded.

bobohle

Was Brown offered?

AADave

Looks like Edwards might be a nice backup plan and addition for 2015 if none of the primary options pan out. He has good size and is a late bloomer – may be another underrated late pickup. But I really hope we can land Wagner and/or Brown. I really doubt we have a decent shot at Brown though.

And we should still plan on having at least one open spot for an elite point guard in 2016. With Spike leaving next year and Walton by 2016, we don’t want to have to break in a freshman in the starting lineup the following year. Then again, we may still have MAAR.

Joe Baston

not quite sure why brown or other recruits would be high on UNC at this point given the investigation and potential outcomes….

bobohle

Yes,I agree about UNC. It seems that has been public before the Syracuse issues and the NCAA has already come down on Syracuse.

Webbdog

Mike Edwards is Mitch McGary 2.0

Champswest

Exactly what I was thinking when I saw him rebound and then bring the ball up court.
If Beilein thinks he can play, I’m all for it.

Jvs

Maybe jaylen isn’t as vocal on Twitter or as upfront about his offers but it is weird that he wouldn’t get one unless there was some sort of mismatch in fit or expectations. Maybe it just hasn’t made the news yet

Champswest

Other than that one dunk, Edwards doesn’t really seem to elevate very much. On some rebounds, he didn’t even jump.

Corperryale

Weird that after the most anticipated visit of the year we haven’t heard anything about an offer. It’s hard to get pumped up about a potential Plan C until we get some sense of what happened to Plan A. I did like the highlights of that guy from Detroit Western that someone in the forum posted but Beilein seems allergic to (seriously) recruiting the DPSL.

Ah, that sucks. I mean, Michigan basketball >>> Cal basketball (obvs) but still, having some fancy west coast school swoop in THE DAY AFTER your U-M official is sorta like outbidding someone by $1 on The Price is Right. Just a low move all around.

A2MIKE

That is an odd destination for an unofficial visit. Has Cal been recruiting him all along? I have yet to see them mentioned in connection with Brown.

Evan’s update that I linked says a ‘source close to Brown’ says that Cal has been recruiting Jaylen since Cuonzo Martin left Tennessee. But no, he hasn’t listed them anywhere or discussed the visit. He did tweet last week that he was taking two visits this week … didn’t know where the other was to.

A2MIKE

Outside of Brown, JB seems very interested in an athletic big who is multifaceted. I think the days of playing “small” are coming to an end.

Wayman Britt

Jaylen Brown has been very quiet about his recruitment, but I think UM still has a shot. Let’s look at his top schools:

UNC – why go here, sanctions!
Kansas – Always an early exit from tourney. B. Self not a good tourney coach.
UCLA – Okay good school and good bball program. Let’s call it a draw.
Kentucky – If he goes to the Wildcat$, we know why.
Cal – great academic school, probably better than UM. Basketball not so good
Tech and Bulldogs – if he wants to stay home, UM cannot compete against these two

psickert1

Actually Michigan can be considered home if he plays here. I don’t think us having a down season is equal to US NOT be so good. I like the fact that coach believing is not banking and holding out anyone..I actually like all of our prospects.

psickert1

I really like te fact that coach Beilien is finally recruiting size. It’s kills me when people post things like ” do we really need another 6 ft 9 – 6ft10 player” bit then turn around and say things like ” I’m sick of having 6ft5 – 6ft6 power forwards and not rebounding or defending the post well”. The new age is about size and skill at all positions, just at teams like Arizona, Kentucky, Wisconsin , UCLA and ect….

If you want to win games, we have to play better post defense and rebound better. We need all the size that we can handle. Imagine if we had this current staff with some of the size and talent that Amaker couldn’t developed as well. We really lack the fundamentals

A2MIKE

I think the last part is the most important, recruiting a kid from DPSL is a plus over the long term, especially with some of the talent in the 16, 17, and 18 classes. I do like that Beilein has avoided simply taking anyone and everyone out of the DPSL, which some people believe Michigan should do, but this kid has huge potential and several fringe benefits to recruiting him, so I agree on offering, not that my opinion matters.

psickert1

I agree with you.some of the players are talented but doesn’t fit as well. We missed out on Monte Morris who was going to commit but we took Derrick Walton and I’m not losing sleep over that…

But I would’ve to have Darrell Davis or Edmond Summers on our roster. I would’ve love to have Tillman and someone like Trevor Manuel.

I am happy with the players that we do have. I think the staff are starting to realize that getting some talent from our backyard is important.

Some players want leave the state to play but plenty are busting their butts for a offer. I really like Wallace as well and he seems to have rebounding potential risk as well. There is no reason why Derrick Walton is getting more rebound than our 3/4/5 I do like Zack Irvin progress as well.

Size, skills and toughness should be part of our recruiting moving forward. It doesn’t matter where it comes from. MSU didn’t have thwith most talented team and they are in the sweet sixteen because they have toughness, rebounding and defense.

MAZS

I’ll beat my dead horse. Having some size is important, but it is over-rated IMHO, even by your examples. I’ll concede Kentucky–but that’s a freak show, where the talent level is as significant as the size. And Arizona tends to play “big”. But Kaminsky is the only “big” Wiscy plays–Hayes is 6’7, at best. And while I don’t want to emulate UCLA/Alford in any respect, that team is built around his son and Powell.

If we can find a skilled 6’8″/6’9″ Four, I’m all in. But that is hard to do. And we can’t run Beilein’s offense without the 4 having ball and shooting skills. More to the point, I don’t believe Beilein will ever play two Bigs together without that kind of skill. He wants one big in the middle, who has the ability to PnR and post. He didn’t play Donnal at the Four this year even after we were decimated with injuries and even though Donnal is probably more of a Four than a Five. We played a 6’6″ center down the stretch when we were starting to hold our own against everyone in the B10.

I’m not particularly interested in becoming Kentucky or even Arizona. I want to continue to be the team we saw in 2013 and 2014–but perhaps even better–like 2014 might have been with Mcgary.

psickert1

Wisconsin has some skilled Bugs Deker is 6 ft 9 and Hayes is 6 ft 8….height and skill is never overrated. LOUISVILLE, Florida, and UCONN won because they had skill and height. Teams like Villinova and Virginia often tank out in the tourney. Duke has had size and skill as well. Rebounding, defense, talent and skill wins championships.

if you have talented and skill players 6ft8-7ft that can play multiple positions then you have a chance To compete. We need to rebound and defend the post better. Also, block shots or at least alternate them. Shooting is import but defense wins games.

MAZS

Hayes ain’t a real 6’8″ and Dekker is listed at 6’7″. Hayes would be a perfect 4 in our system. Dekker is alot like Irvin–sizewise and skillwise–a 3, who could play the 4 if needed.

jakelam2116

Is it just me (or maybe I was affected by the techno music) or did Edwards seem off balance on a lot of those plays in the video? Regardless, he seems like a decent late ’15 recruit if the other guys fall through. Speaking of, I’d be shocked if Brown goes to Michigan. Call me pessimistic, but top tier talent is going to UK or Kansas (the NCAA Tourney results aren’t that big of a deal there). And as far as UNC, a guy that’s going for likely one year probably isn’t thinking about sanctions coming down in the future. Speaking of that, the situation there is sticky, right? As of now, I believe, it’s a university academic scandal, not basketball. Of course, that could change, but so far UNC doesn’t seem to be suffering one bit.